How "public" are you about your illness or its after-effects?

hawk711 said:

Hey Deb Lewis
We are both Californians, we have to stick together! Keep strong, have fun, try hard, enjoy the day.
take care of yourself, you're special.
Steve

Private, public or combo
Hi Brian and friends,
This is, as has been said, a very interesting topic. In nearly twenty years I haven't thought of how I present this part of my life. As I read all these facinating post I definetly found myself in the public position. My throat cancer was found half way though my 30 plus years as a public school teacher. In the spring I taught a "Family Life" class that dealt deeply into drug abuse among a number subjects young people are very interested in. This gave me a chance to give a first hand account of the dangers of tobacco and alcohol use and that I will always have a shadow hanging over me that I put there myself and that they can avoid if the're smart. In my presdent career many of my colleagues are collage seniors or post graduates and a good number quiz me about what I did at this point in my life and if I had any suggestions as to what they might do next given the times in which we find ourselves. My condensed responce is do not give up on their goals and do not defeat themself by doing things they know can hurt them or others. I believe that for me being "public" does as much for me if not more than it does for those I share it with. Thanks to all you. josh r.

Private or public?
I agree, this was a good topic to post! I've always been the blunt and honest type so when I was diagnosed, nothing really changed. I had cancer (notice the "had" in there, haha!). I didn't ask for it, I didn't cause it, but I got it, nothing to be ashamed of,as said before, it is what it is. In my job as a property manager, I have contact with a lot of people every day and a lot of them ask for me personally. I also have 23 apartments where I live (and I'm the onsight manager) who I have close contact with almost daily and they noticed something was wrong too. When I wasn't able to talk, they wanted to know where I was, when I would be back, etc....so I gave my co-workers the ok to tell. My thoughts on it are: I fully intend to go through this with a positive attitude and if I can use this to show people how powerful God is, or make them stop and think about their faith in God, then that's what I want to do. And that's what I did. It's kinda hard to hide anyway, with the weight loss, bright red neck, big black circles under my eyes, something was obviously really wrong. Now I have a hefty scar down the side of my neck that I'm sure will cause some questions. I named my cancer Goliath, after the Bible giant, because cancer is big, it's scary and I'm just a little guy, but God is bigger than this nasty disease. Anyway, didn't mean to turn this into a sermon but that's kind of how I got through it.... my faith and using it to show my faith, so I was pretty public. Because of how open I have been with this, the support has been absolutely amazing! There's not one person that has walked away because of it and I realized that over the last few years, I have eliminated people from my life who are harmful and now am surrounded by a very tight knit group of people who really love me! Just one of the many blessings that actually came out of this.

Hugs my friends, it's about time for another pain pill and nap
Karen

very public , i guess.....
Brian,
Heres the thing,I seem to be more in controll of my emotions when i am around people. When people that know me ask about my situation, i tend to share the particulars pretty calmly. So i can discuss it like its no big deal at all.
People that don't know me that well seem to be intrigued by the way i speak about the illness and the statistics for the long term. They almost always comment on how well i seem to be handling everything. No one has seen me when i am alone and trying not to get into a self pity party, though. lol
Also people that have had similar situations, can recognize the scars on my neck, and when they ask about my situation tend to have a bit more tact.
tonyb.